


Preferably Red Shoes

by ZeldaByrdeBishop



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: A "Hands That Link In Prayer" Story, Ambrose Spellman - Freeform, An AU of an AU, Diana Spellman - Freeform, Edward Spellman - Freeform, Gen, Hiriko Hana (OC), Kitsuki Hana (OC), hilda spellman - Freeform, is this fluff???, tw memory loss, tw ptsd, you're gonna cry but you're gonna be happy about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:47:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28754631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZeldaByrdeBishop/pseuds/ZeldaByrdeBishop
Summary: Sabrina Spellman's Aunt Zelda's memory has had some hiccups since the bombing of their Japanese city, but Sabrina has never once doubted the love her aunt holds for her - even if her aunt may not always remember her.Set in the "Hands That Link in Prayer" Universe (If Zelda had been able to stay with Daiki Hana (The Shock of Heat) in Japan)
Relationships: Sabrina Spellman & Zelda Spellman
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12





	Preferably Red Shoes

A “Hands That Link In Prayer” Story

Sabrina peeked around the kitchen doorway, catching sight of her aunt, who was watching the birds out the window. Her parents had left her alone with her Aunt Zelda and Uncle Daiki as they were off shopping with the rest of the family and Sabrina knew this would be prime time to get her aunt to tell her more scary stories that her mother “would implore” her aunt to stop telling as they always gave her nightmares, but she loved them regardless.

The little girl creeped up and jumped up behind her aunt yelling “Roar!”

Her aunt jumped and reached out to tickle the girl, “Did you scare me!?” 

Sabrina giggled, only half trying to escape the tickles before her aunt swung her up into her arms so she could give her aunt a kiss, getting lipstick smudged on her face as her aunt returned the kiss with gusto. “I want a ghost story!”

“You want a ghost story?”

The girl nodded emphatically as she poked her aunts bright red lips “YES!”

“Your mother told me not to tell you those stories anymore. They give you nightmares.”

“I won’t get scared!”

“You won’t?”

“NO! I’m brave!”

Her aunt smiled and hugged her closer, “I know you are…. If I tell you a story you have to promise me you wont tell your mother I told you one! Pinky swear!”

Sabrina held out her little pinky and sealed the deal with her aunt who was just starting to take her out of the room when the smoke alarm went off. The girl quickly put her hands over her ears at the piercing sound, but wasn’t frightened. This was a common occurrence whenever her aunt cooked. Her aunt tended to forget things in the oven. In fact her aunt tended to forget many things. Her mother had told her not to draw attention to it - that it was a side effect from a scary bombing that had happened in their town in Japan during the last World War just like Uncle Daiki’s frequent headaches.

Everyone always seemed to be worried about her aunt’s forgetting, but Sabrina didn’t mind it. It just meant she got to hear her favorite scary stories over and over!

“Blasted!” Her Aunt Zelda uttered as she set Sabrina down to remove the charcoal cake from the oven. 

Her Uncle Daiki quickly came from upstairs into the kitchen, “Zelda!”

“I know! I know…”

He scowled deeply and crossed his arms, his voice hushed and hissing, “We asked you not to cook. You agreed.”

“I wanted to try again and make a cake for Hilda! It’s her  _ birthday _ .”

“You have  _ never  _ wanted to cook and now the moment it’s been deemed unsafe you suddenly become obsessed with it.”

Her aunt swiped her hand in the air to dissipate the smoke, dumping the cake in the garbage, not responding. 

Sabrina watched as her uncle sighed soundlessly - angrily - which was only jarring as he was never angry, before he turned off the oven and shut its door as her aunt put the pan in the sink, running water and soap over its surface to soak it before holding onto the counter. 

She always thought it curious that her aunt’s hands and legs seemed to shake sometimes. Did she not know to get a blanket when she was cold?

“I’m not incapacitated,” her aunt finally stated.

Uncle Daiki frowned deeply, “No one said you were.”

Her aunt frowned deeply looking back at her uncle, tears in her eyes before he quickly wrapped her up in a hug. 

Sabrina quickly ran over and snatched onto both of their legs before Uncle Daiki scooped her up so they could cuddle her in the middle of them. “No crying Auntie! It’s just cake! Uncle Daiki and I can help you make a new one!”

Her uncle stiffened a bit but nodded, kissing the top of Sabrina’s head. “That sounds like an excellent idea, Sabrina. What kind of cake should we make for your Aunt Hilda?”

“CHOCOLATE!”

Aunt Zelda’s smile finally peeked out through her sniffles and she let go of Uncle Daiki to cuddle Sabrina close, peppering her face with little kisses that made the girl giggle.

“Chocolate it is,” her uncle declared, moving to begin the cake, leaving Sabrina in her aunt’s arms until it was time to dump in the sugar and stir the cake!

***

12 Years Later

***

Sabrina came down the stairs and held out her hands to present herself to the family, wearing her prom dress. The dress was a simple, but elegant red ball gown and she’d added a flowered headband to match. 

“Oh, Sabrina.…” Her Aunt Hilda cooed as she stepped forward to flounce the skirt a bit so it laid just right, only to be helped by Cousin Ambrose who took over her other side, scolding his cousin gently. 

“Although, the blue shoes are an off combination. Don’t you want to change them, Cousin?”

Sabrina simply shook her head with a small smile. Her mother was in tears, alongside her father, who’s eyes gleamed with pride at the sight of her. Even her cousins Hiriko and Kitty and her Uncle Daiki were present, beaming up at her, but one family member was missing.

“Where’s Aunt Zee?” 

A small silence washed over the family. The answer was obvious. 

Her aunt was having another episode, despite her generally coherent morning at breakfast. She must have missed the loud noise or odd shift in lighting that set this one off. She hoped it hadn’t been her fault, her hair brush had fallen off her vanity….

“...She’s down in the embalming room,” Ambrose replied, his fingers stroking the soft skin of the girl’s arm. 

“Ok,” Sabrina nodded, lifting her skirt to go towards the basement. 

“Sabrina! Why don’t you leave her. Please. You don’t want to ruin your dress….” her mother pleaded, gently taking the girl’s elbow in her grasp. 

Sabrina’s eyes met her cousin Hiriko’s, who blinked once, granting her permission. Hiriko always seemed to know when her mother was amicable, rather than violent in her episodes. Sabrina didn’t blame her aunt, she could be scary in those moments, but Sabrina had tried to put herself in her aunt’s shoes, like Uncle Daiki had told her too, and the idea of having no idea where you are or who anyone in the room was she’d determined was worth a violent outburst or two. Her aunt was just scared. 

The young half witch turned to hug her mother, squeezing her before separating. “I won’t ruin my dress. I’ll be careful. I just want to see her before I go…”

She looked to the rest of the family and smiled reassuringly. “I’ll be right back up!”

“Sabrina -” her father began to argue, but the girl was already slipping through the small door, taking care not to get her heels caught in the winding stairs down to her aunt’s lair. 

“Aunt Zelda?” She asked softly, peering around the corner to where her redheaded aunt sat at the embalming table staring deep into the body of the deceased as if it would hold the answers to the universe. No matter how lost her aunt got - she always seemed to remember Uncle Daiki (mostly) and how to embalm a body, although there were instructional papers set all over the embalming room, just in case. 

“Auntie?” She repeated softly, easing her way down the stairs further, the sound of her voice finally getting the woman’s attention. 

“Hello?” Her aunt questioned as her eyes hit the girl in the pretty dress, instinctively standing up to greet the girl. “....Can I help you?” 

Oh, totes good. She could still remember English. 

“Hi...no. I just… wanted to come down and say “hi.”...... Daiki Hana sent me down.”

Zelda frowned deeply, her head shifting to the side as she analysed the girl. The voices above them raised a bit, but her eyes only flitted to the door once. “..........Hello.”

“What are you working on!?” Sabrina asked, bouncing over to the body to look at it, staying far enough away that her dress would stay out of harm's way. 

If she could get her aunt talking about the body, she could relax her, and if she could relax her, then her aunt wouldn’t begin to ask too many questions - keeping her amicable. If her aunt asked too many questions it would eventually start to dawn on her Aunt Zelda that her memory was spotty and that always set her off. It was best to just allow her aunt to make up her own reality until she could sleep off the amnesia (although even that had begun to only work 3/4ths of the time). Sabrina took pride in having her aunt’s condition down to a science, making her one of her aunt’s favorites even on her bad days. 

The woman as predicted relaxed a bit and walked back over the body. “...I was looking at the cancer in her body…..It’s fascinating how quickly something can spread………….....Why did my husband send you down here? Are you a mortuary student?” 

Sabrina shook her head, “No, I’m not a mortuary student. Although, I do work at a mortuary sometimes. My aunt is a mortician, although her memory isn’t what it used to be, so I don’t get to work with her like I used to.”

Zelda frowned deeply, her hands starting to shake just slightly. “I’m sorry to hear that… I’m sure she would be very proud of you…You sound like a smart girl…Might I ask? What brings you here?”

Sabrina shrugged, smiling. “I know you don’t know me, but I wanted your opinion on something.”

Her Aunt Zelda’s eyes joined her frown, considering the girl for a little while before slowly sitting down, taking the bloody gloves off her hands. Her voice lowered with severity, “...Alright?” 

“.........Do you think these shoes match this dress?”

The older woman paused, before leaning over the table to compare the dark blue shoes and the red dress, considering the question despite it’s oddity, her tongue hesitating.

“Honest opinions only,” Sabrina verified, swishing her skirt a bit. 

“Well……..frankly, if you’re going to wear a red dress and a red headband...one should also wear black, nude, or preferably red shoes…..green if one is to be festive. What is the occasion?”

Sabrina smiled softly, knowing her aunt would say just that, “My senior prom…”

Her aunt looked at her with confusion, trying desperately to pick up the pieces of a foreign concept.

“It’s a ball...kind of a coming of age.”

“Oh! When is it?”

“In a half an hour….”

Aunt Zelda’s frown returned and she stood back up, “Blasted…. That doesn’t quite leave you time to go home and change those shoes does it?!”

“I probably could if I moved quickly,” Sabrina eased, but her aunt was having none of it.

“Poppycock, there has to be a way to remedy this quickly, why else would Daiki have sent you down here…..” The woman looked down to her own red heeled shoes and then looked back up to the girl, “What size shoe do you wear?”

Tears pricked Sabrina’s eyes as she watched her aunt’s eyes, seeing her thought process unfold. She hadn’t predicted this…. She was just going to go upstairs and change the shoes...

“...Seven and a half..”

Her aunt’s eyes connected to hers and a grin spread over her face as she quickly went to wash her hands in the sink nearby, gesturing to the stool by the table. “Splendid! Sit! Take off your shoes.”

Sabrina quietly did as she was told, carefully removing the blue shoes as her aunt did the same with her red ones. 

“Here,” the woman said as she knelt down in front of the girl, fitting her feet with the shoes, carefully buckling them with unsteady, but no longer shaking fingers. “There….do they pinch at all? Take a walk around…”

Sabrina stood up and carefully started to walk around in the shoes, doing everything in her power to keep her tears at bay, not sure how she could explain it to her auntie.

“Well?.....”

Sabrina took a moment to compose herself, feeling her jaw start to tremble as tears threatened, but she forced composure as she’d seen her aunt do many times. She needed to keep her aunt from asking questions.

“Yeah… they fit perfect,” Sabrina confessed with a beaming smile, turning back to her aunt.

Aunt Zelda smiled and took the girl’s face in her hands for a second, before starting to pick at the girl’s hair and dress, priming her like a doll before stepping back to admire her. “There…Utsukushii - Beautiful…. Now, off you go! I don’t know your aunt, but I’m sure she wouldn’t want you to be late to your ball. Those are important events for a woman coming of age. Have my husband drive you. I cannot believe for the life of me that he would allow you to come down here for a chat before such a momentous event!”

Sabrina’s smile grew as the tears became harder to beat back, “I’ll bring them back tomorrow….”

Her aunt simply shook her head and tutted, wiping away the tears that shook free from the girl’s eyes, “Don’t even think of it……...Although, you are very welcome to come back and have a chat any time you’d like - if it’s alright with your aunt…”

The girl’s jaw started to shake under the woman’s gaze, her voice only a whisper, “I don’t think she would mind…..Thank you, Mrs. Hana...”

Zelda frowned deeply and wrapped the girl into a hug. “Think nothing of it….Now. Go. You can’t be late,” her aunt implored letting her go to gesture to the staircase. She quickly leaned down to scoop up the girl’s other pair of shoes, handing them to her - not taking the girl’s imobile feet as an answer. After all, a ball was a momentous event.

When Sabrina emerged back upstairs, her sniffles were apparent and Edward jumped forward, his voice full of angry concern, “What did she do?! I told you we couldn’t leave them alone!”

Uncle Daiki quickly stepped forward, standing between the door to the basement and her father, the strict scowl on his face enough of a retort to her father to count as words, before Aunt Hilda suddenly gasped. Tears instantly poured down her other aunt’s face as she pointed down to Sabrina’s shoes.

The family froze as they all looked down at the red shoes. 

Those were without a doubt - the eldest Spellman sister’s favorite red shoes.

“She-...she said I needed red shoes to go with my red dress…..”

Everyone was silent, until finally Ambrose spoke up through fresh tears, “Just as I said...” 

Kitty giggled through her tears, hugging her sister from behind.

“We need to get you going, dear. Harvey’s already waiting outside…” Her mother implored  through a few sniffles of her own, “You’re Aunt Zelda would hate for you to be late in her shoes…”

Sabrina smiled and wiped away her tears, nodding as she kissed her parents on their  cheeks, handing the pair of blue shoes to her mother, before walking out the door. 

Her Aunt Zelda would hate for her to be late in her shoes and she didn’t want to  disappoint her. 

  
  



End file.
